


A "Little" Issue at the Nine-Nine

by Anonymous



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Caregiver!Charles, Crying, Gen, Insecurity, Non-Sexual Age Play, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sleep Deprivation, Temper Tantrums, Thumb-sucking, caregiver!Amy, caregiver!Terry, little!Jake, nsap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 09:52:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15337326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Things at the Nine-Nine have been stressful for Detective Jake Peralta. Overtime, sleepless nights, and all-consuming cases have left him tired and unable to relax.There's a moment where it all becomes too much— and, in that moment, he breaks.ORThe one where Jake is secretly a little to cope with pent up stress, and things get messy when he ends up slipping at work.





	1. Chapter 1

Usually, Jake wasn't the type of guy to stress out. He was always loose and relaxed, joking around at inappropriate times, and being the overall opposite of 'uptight'. 

But he was a human being. There were times when he'd get a little high strung— after the solving of a rough case, or an overabundance of overtime— and need to unwind. Sometimes he could get away with that being a couple of drinks, or a fling with a floosy.

Though, he'd be lying if he said those were his favorite ways to refresh. He had another, more.. unconventional method.

Yes, Jake Peralta, best detective in the Nine-Nine.. was a Little.

He'd be mortified if anyone ever found out. All his pride would go straight down the tube, and he'd be damned if anyone in the department ever respected him again. Who could respect him when they knew he acted like a literal man child in his free time?

He couldn't deny how much it helped him, though, as embarrassing as it was. It pretty much let him reset, giving his mind a break from mulling over all of his open cases, and even help him see them in a new light once he was big again.

Plus, there was no way anyone could find out anyway. He was in complete control of that side of him, and it would never take over unless he wanted it to.

Right?

..................

"Another arrest?" Boyle exclaimed as Jake entered, leading a cuffed man in front of him.

"Yep. It's my.." He paused, counting on his fingers, "Sixth one since Monday. And it's now Friday." He grinned, jutting his chin out proudly.

"Didn't you work over the weekend too?" Amy cut in, glancing up at him from the open file in her hands. "What are you trying to prove?"

"Nothing! I just need the extra dough." He justified, ushering his arrest into the holding cell. "There's nothing wrong with nabbing some more paid hours if you can get 'em."

"True," Boyle shrugged, "But don't overwork yourself. You look like you haven't slept in days."

"Yeah, that's probably 'cause I haven't." Jake stated flatly as he went to make coffee. Boyle's eyebrows raised, and even Amy's face showed concern.

"That isn't healthy at all!" Boyle sounded nearly offended, "It does kind of seem like you wanna prove something. Santiago might be onto something." He gave Amy a knowing look, and she nodded.

"I don't have anything to prove, okay?" Jake sighed, plopping down at his desk. "If you really wanna know, I'm trying to pay off some of my debt. Maybe get some actual savings. Gross adult stuff like that." He said, resting his chin in his hand and staring at his computer screen.

"Huh." Amy mumbled. "I would've expected a more.. interesting reason. Not something so normal." She glanced at Jake when he didn't make a comeback, and it looked almost as if he was pouting. "But at least go home and rest. You look like a corpse."

"I'm fine! I swear! Stop worrying about me, it's creepy." He gave her a miffed look, but she simply pursed her lips and went back to her desk. Boyle shot him a glance, but didn't say anything else.

The truth was, Jake was absolutely not fine. He was tired, hungry, and all he wanted to do was go home and lie in bed with all his soft blankets. But he couldn't just walk out on his shift, even with all the overtime he'd worked.

He took a deep breath and began to fill out some of the paperwork he'd slacked on regarding all his recent arrests. But his mind was wandering, and he constantly caught himself getting distracted or spacing out. He'd even had to pull his hand from his face when his thumb had began to linger too close to his mouth. 

He couldn't believe he was even getting close to his headspace while he was at work. Though, he supposed it was justified, given how exhausted and tense he was. But he was supposed to be in control!

He shook his head, trying to think of a solution (which proved difficult with how rapidly his thoughts were becoming jumbled, his need to regress making itself even more prominent). 

He decided to step away from his more mundane work. The less he was in his own head, the better.

"Hey, Charles." Jake said, rolling towards Boyle in his office chair. The other man perked, giving Jake a smile and a nod.

"What's up? Want me to cover your shift so you can go home and rest?" He tried, but Jake only narrowed his eyes.

"No, of course not." He replied, "I just wanted to see if you had any open cases that required going out in the field. I'm restless." It wasn't a lie at all, he just wasn't clear about why he was restless, and Boyle wouldn't wonder about that anyway. It was a common thing for Jake to get bored and want a bit of action.

"Oh, no, no, no." Boyle said, shaking his head. "If you're gonna insist on working when you're this tired, you'll at least stay at the precinct. I won't let you tag along on any of my cases."

"But I want to." Jake mumbled, picking at the hem of his jacket. Being denied what he wanted was definitely not good for keeping him out of headspace. In fact, it had him on a fast track to a tantrum.

"Sorry Jakey," Boyle shrugged, and Jake felt himself starting to slip even more due to the familiar nickname. "You can't sway me on this."

Jake felt his eyes starting to water, and he kept his head down as his bottom lip quivered. He kicked at the leg of Boyle's desk. "I wanna go out in the field.." He almost whined, his voice raspy with oncoming tears. By now, he couldn't stop himself from regressing even if he wanted to. 

So, basically, he was screwed.

"Are.. Are you crying..?" Boyle asked in disbelief. Jake's face scrunched up and he brought his knees to his chest, hiding his face and whining quietly. "Jake?" He tried again, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder.

"I-I wanted to go-o on a case with you b-because I couldn't focus an-and I was trying to—" The words tumbled from Jake's mouth, his watery voice muffled behind his knees before he took a deep, shuddering breath. Then he began to sob.

His whole body shook as he cried, everyone's attention focusing on him in confusion. He was extremely embarrassed now, on top of being tired, and he couldn't think of anything to do. He felt helpless.

"Jake? What happened to you?" Amy approached him, placing her hands on his arms. She turned to Boyle, but he only shrugged, a shocked look on his face. "Jake?"

When he didn't look up and continued his fit, Rosa approached Amy and Boyle. "Look, I don't know what's up with him, but he's disrupting everyone. Take him to the evidence locker or something."

"Why me?" Amy argued.

"Well, someone needs to do it. Get him out of here."

Amy crossed her arms, but began trying to coax Jake into following her. "Come on, can you let me and Boyle take you to the evidence locker? It isn't so far away, and you can go back to your.." She hesitated, frowning at the utterly pitiful state he was in. "Whatever this is, when we get there."

"Yeah, and maybe you can tell us what's bothering you?" Boyle added, smiling at Jake, who had now peaked at the two detectives hesitantly.

"Okay." Jake whispered, slowly standing from his chair and wobbling slightly on the spot. Boyle put a hand on his shoulder to steady him, while Amy grimaced at the fat tears and snot still running down Jake's face, and they led him to the evidence locker.

Big Jake would have a lot of damage control to do when he returned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Boyle end up figuring out Jake's issue, and Terry gets looped in to help.

Amy, Boyle, and Jake reached the evidence locker, Jake's sniffles and hiccups the only sounds between them as they pulled up chairs to sit on. Amy sent Boyle to get tissues for Jake, since she couldn't stand the sight of the tears, among other things, that were still running down his face (and since she knew he'd find it in him to smear it all onto his sleeve within the next few minutes).

She placed a hand on Jake's back and began to rub circles, hoping to soothe him somehow, or at least keep him from full-on sobbing again. His gaze was trained at the floor, and she leaned over in an attempt to look him in the eyes.

"Jake?" She said softly, frowning at how his lip wobbled and more tears spilled from his eyes when she spoke. "Can you talk to me? Please?" It was a longshot, but she'd be damned if she didn't at least try.

Jake's brow creased, and he shook his head, the movement slow and tired. Amy thought he actually might fall asleep just sitting there, with the way his eyelids were drooping and his head hung low. He did say he hadn't slept in days, she remembered.

Jake yawned, subsequently sliding his thumb into his mouth and fighting his eyes to stay open.

"And he is.. sucking his thumb." Amy whispered under her breath, wincing at the thought of the germs. "Totally not weird."

Boyle then arrived, tissues in hand, making Jake snap to attention as if he'd gotten a surge of energy. Boyle looked at Amy with a silent question, but she only responded with a shake of her head and a long sigh.

"Hey, buddy, what's going on?" He asked Jake as he sat down, handing Amy the tissues. Jake slurred something unintelligible around his thumb and refused to look at either of them. "What was that?"

Jake's face scrunched, but he repeated, clenching his fingers around the fabric of his jacket. "M'sorry."

"For what?" Amy and Boyle asked in unison. Jake looked up, as if he wasn't expecting them to ask.

"I was bad." He said, as if it was obvious, and switched to nursing his pointer and middle fingers. 

"How were you.. bad?" Amy prodded, and Jake blinked absently, clearly not wanting to answer.

"Should have been working. B-But I wasn't a big boy and I.. I threw a fit. M'supposed to be a big boy at work.." He mumbled, tears filling his eyes again as he scrubbed at them with his fist. Boyle shot Amy a glance, then quickly pulled her aside.

"I know what's wrong with him." Boyle declared in a quiet voice, not alerting Jake.

"What is it?" Amy responded, brow knit together.

"He's stressed because he's been working so much. And I've heard that some people cope with stress by doing this. It's kind of like reverting to a toddler's mindset."

"I thought that was just some weird, kink.. thing." She grimaced.

"It can be, but from what I can tell, I'm pretty sure this is innocent."

"It's still weird either way, but.." She gave a defeated shrug, "If that really is the case, I'm horrible with kids. I don't even want to know how I'd help you deal with something like this." Amy warned, and Boyle seemed deep in thought.

"That's true. But you know who's great with little kids?"

......................

"Run that by me again?" Terry asked Boyle, his brow creased in a suspicious manner.

"Amy and I need your help with Jake, since he got so stressed and regressed into a child's mindset. We thought since you're such an amazing father you could probably help." Boyle rushed through the explanation again, hoping Terry would agree. The man seemed to think for a second before nodding.

"I'll see what I can help with." He said, "But this really is weird. I knew Peralta was childish, but this is a whole different level."

Boyle let out a long breath, but didn't say anything as they made their way to Jake.

......................

Amy had been left to fend for herself with Jake while Boyle fetched the sarge. Sure, she was terrible with kids, but Jake wasn't actually a child. He was just acting like one, which he always did anyway.

It.. wasn't as easy as she'd anticipated.

"Amy..?" Jake asked, and his voice sounded so small she swore it could be an actual three year old.

"Yes? Are you okay? What's up?" She questioned, forcing a smile. Jake gave her an odd look, then rubbed at his eyes, kicking at the room's concrete floors.

"Tired." He mumbled, blinking heavily.

"Well, there's nowhere for you to nap in here, so you'll just have to wait a bit longer. I promise you'll be able to rest soon." She told him. He frowned, slipping off his chair and making to lay down.

"M'gonna nap right now." Jake said, followed by a small yawn.

"No, no, Jake, the floor's dirty. Don't be silly, you just need to wait until Charles comes back with Terry, and then you can rest." Amy enforced, kneeling next to him and trying to guide him up off the floor.

"No!" He defied, tears quickly forming and beginning to run down his cheeks.

"God, how can he get so upset so fast..?" She whispered, thinking of ways to calm him. "It'll be alright, you just—" She tried to reassure, but was cut off by Jake letting out a loud, raspy sob as he began to kick and slap at the floor.

"Jake! If you don't calm down right now, I'll, uh.. I'll.." She paused, realizing she had nothing to threaten him with. She suddenly felt very incapable, and didn't think she could even manage to calm him down for as much as he'd worked himself up.

The door then opened, revealing Terry and Boyle, for whom Jake didn't even spare a look, too caught up in his fit. Amy quickly rose and approached them.

"I don't even know why he got so worked up! He was tired, but I told him he couldn't nap on the floor because it was dirty, so—"

"He's so upset _because_ he's tired. It's basic child care to know to just let 'em rest where they drop. Even if it's on a dirty floor." Terry cut in, any awkwardness he had for the situation replaced by parenting instincts when he saw Jake's distraught state.

Terry lowered himself next to Jake. The boy had somewhat exhausted himself, no longer having the energy to do more than cry. "Hey, buddy, you're okay." Terry soothed, easily coaxing Jake into a sitting position, making Amy huff something about how it was easier for him since he was actually a parent. "You're tired, right?" He asked, and Jake nodded, jamming his thumb back into his mouth.

Terry grabbed one of the tissues Boyle had brought in earlier, using it to dry the tracks of tears from Jake's face and ruffling his hair. The boy smiled, reaching his arms out. Terry quickly got the hint and hoisted Jake into his arms.

"I'm impressed, sarge." Boyle commented as Terry settled Jake onto his hip. "You make it look so easy."

"He is acting remarkably like a three year old, so it's actually easier than I expected. Honestly, he's easier to handle than he is normally." Terry said, raising a brow, and Amy snorted a laugh.

"So.. what now?" Amy asked, glancing at Jake, who had fallen asleep in Terry's arms. "Do we take him home?"

"That sounds like a good idea, and we can see what to do from there." Boyle agreed, and Terry nodded.

"I feel like it'll be a long day." Amy sighed, heading to grab her keys.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to suggest ideas for future chapters in the comments :)


End file.
